


One More Year

by TwirlsWrites



Category: Marvel, Ultimate Spider-Man (Cartoon)
Genre: Friendship, M/M, Teenagers making out, just like a lot of making out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-24
Updated: 2014-10-11
Packaged: 2018-02-06 00:05:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1837081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwirlsWrites/pseuds/TwirlsWrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter and Danny think about the future, kiss a lot, and have complicated teenage feelings about things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“You’re distracted,” Danny said, landing a kick to Peter’s chest and sending him back a few feet.

“Better pay attention than pay for a mistake,” Peter quoted back at him, his tone irritable. “I know.” Danny paused, moving into a more relaxed pose.

“What is so important that your attention is there rather than here?” he asked. Peter sighed, rubbing a hand over his mask as Danny sat. After a moment, Peter joined him on the ground.

“How about the fact that you’re a mystical secret king of a magical kung-fu city and that in a year you’ll go back and stay there forever?” Danny continued to simply watch, seemingly unaffected by Peter’s words. “It just… it sucks is all.”

“Why?”

“Why?” Peter squeaked. “Because you’re my friend! Because you’re going to be gone forever - I don’t know how often they let ‘infidels’ visit, but I’m not guessing it’s a lot. Because you’re just a kid! You’re what - 16? 17? There’s so much you haven’t done!”

“Like what?”

“Like…” Peter fumbled for his words, hands flying through the air as his brain ran through possibilities. “Like, I don’t know - having your first kiss, going on a road trip with friends, seeing both coasts of the country, going to Disneyland, like… seeing the world’s largest… ball of twine. I don’t know Danny… stuff!” Danny’s grin was soft, and he took off his mask, Peter following in his stead. They were in an abandoned warehouse this time rather than the bridge like last week - probably a good choice.

“And you think that these are worthwhile experiences?” Danny clarified. Peter nodded. Danny seemed to contemplate this for a moment, head tilting a bit. “Why do you assume that I’ve never kissed anyone?”

“Well… mystic monk city. I don’t know, I just assumed.” Peter said. Danny grinned.

“I’ve kissed people in K’un L’un, and I’ve kissed people here.”

“Wait, who’ve you kissed here?” Peter asked.

“Do you know Misty?” Danny asked. Peter frowned for a moment and then his eyes widened.

“You kissed Misty Knight? You kissed Misty Knight and you _lived to talk about it_?” Misty was… well, out of Danny’s league if Peter was going to be honest. Then again, Danny was a nice, smart, attractive dude with muscles to spare. Maybe that was Misty’s type? Peter still remembered the disaster of Flash trying to get Misty to go out with him Sophomore year.

“She was very,” he licked his lips in memory, “Aggressive. It was interesting. I kissed her, and also Harry.” He paused. “Technically, he kissed me. It was a nice kiss, but he was drunk so I don’t really count it.”

“Wait, what?” Peter’s brain took a moment to catch up, and his voice came out a bit louder and more shrill than he intended. “You kissed Harry? My best friend Harry? When?”

“At his party when Venom first arrived,” Danny gave Peter a weird look. “Are you okay, friend?”

“I’m fine!” Peter said, way too loud. He was almost at Nova levels of volume here. He cleared his throat and tried again. “I’m fine.”

“Does the fact that we are both male bother you?” Danny didn’t seem upset, merely curious. “Luke had said that some people did not approve of - “

“No! No, I’m totally cool with that, really.” Peter said quickly. “I just…” he hesitated, drumming his fingers on the floor. Danny had been honest with him, he could be honest in return. He kept his eyes on the ground, his voice quiet. “I just can’t believe that Harry kissed a guy… ah, that he kissed a guy before I did.”

“Ah,” Danny said. He watched Peter carefully, his ever-present sense of calm never wavering. “Would you like to talk about it?”

“No! I just… when MJ and I were little, we decided that we may as well date. But it, ah, it didn’t feel right. I talked to my uncle about it, and he explained to me that sometimes people liked other people of the same gender and that was okay. I ah, I’ve never actually brought it up with anyone else.”

Danny seemed to process this for a moment, and it was so quiet that Peter was a bit startled when he spoke, though it was quiet as ever.

“Would you like to kiss me?” he asked. Peter stared for a moment and then forced a laugh.

“Ah, no way buddy - I had anchovies for lunch, so I’m set. No pity-kisses for Spider-Man.”

“It wouldn’t be a pity kiss,” Danny said. “I have given it some thought in the past, but I assumed you would not be receptive.”

“Oh,” Peter said. “Really?” Danny nodded.

There was another awkward beat.

“Okay,” Peter said. His voice was quiet but he tried again, louder. “Okay, let’s kiss.”

“You’re sure?” Danny clarified. Peter nodded. Danny licked his lips, and Peter followed his lead. “Okay, close your eyes.”

Peter closed his eyes and let out a breath. He just had time to wonder if he should take a deep breath - how did you breathe when you were kissing? What if he exhaled all over Danny’s face? What if he started choking? What if he had to sneeze - and then this brain sort of shorted out at the feeling of Danny softly moving a hand to cup his face and then pressing his lips to Peter’s.

Peter wasted no time in responding, his initial fears about not knowing what to do vanishing almost instantly. He tilted his head slightly to get a better angle and then pressed forward to amp up the pressure a little bit. Danny made a soft pleased noise at the change and, yeah, Peter was rather fond of that.

They broke apart, sucking in air like they had just run a marathon - apparently that’s how it worked, who knew - and watching each other.

“For someone who’s never done that before, my friend, you are quite good at kissing,” Danny said.

“Thanks, I’ll be sure to add that to my resume. Spider-Man: masked vigilante, spider abilities, witty humor, quick study at kissing.” Peter licked his lips, and noticed Danny’s gaze dropping to them. Danny licked his own lips and Peter threw caution to the wind - what the hell, right? - and pounced to lay another kiss on them.

“Very good,” Danny said between kisses. “You’re _very_ good at this.”

“Well you know,” Peter said. “I watch a lot of movies, read a lot of articles.”

“I think we should stop talking now.”

“I agree,” Peter breathed. Danny leaned up to kiss him again.

 

* * *

 

 

So he finally got his first kiss, his first “real kiss” if you were getting technical. That was great. That was all it was - a friend helping a friend. A kiss. And Peter might not have a whole lot of experience with this, but he was pretty sure it had been a damn good kiss… a whole make-out session to be honest.

Wow, he had “made out” with someone; A snog session, if you were British; Necking, if you were like 60. Actually, Peter wondered if it would count as necking. Sometimes in movies the romantic couple kissed each other’s necks and stuff, maybe that’s what necking was.

Peter wondered if he and Danny might ‘neck’ later.

Okay, yeah, that’s what the problem was.

It was a kiss. Multiple kisses, maybe, but that was it. They weren’t in a relationship, they weren’t dating, heck - Peter hadn’t even considered Danny in that light before! And yet he couldn’t get the kiss out of his mind. It was only thanks to Fury’s training (never tell him that) that Peter wasn’t going out of his mind during training sessions in close quarters with the Iron Fist because all of the sudden, Peter’s focus seemed to go right to Danny’s lips. He was pretty sure that technically speaking, he couldn’t actually taste Danny, and definitely sure that he wouldn’t be able to days after the event.

And yet.

Maybe kissing gave you feelings. Maybe it was like Mean Girls only “Don’t kiss people. You will get feelings and die” instead of… you know, sex.

Okay, Peter needed to focus.

It was a barrage of thoughts, and then nearly getting owned by Bartoc the Leaper of all villains that drew Peter to realize that he needed to get some advice.

 

“Wow dude,” Harry said as his character effectively demolished Peter’s on the flat screen. “You’re even worse than usual today, everything okay?”

“Actually,” Peter said. He set down his controller. “I wanted to talk to you about something.” Harry seemed to catch something in his tone, because he too set aside his controller and turned to fully face Peter.

“I’m all ears, Pete.” He said seriously. Peter drummed his hands on his legs for a minute, working up the courage. This sucked, maybe he could just come out as Spider-Man instead. He took a deep breath, eyes focused on the ground rather than on his best friend.

“Okay. Well, ah first of all - I’m gay.” He said. He winced and glanced over at Harry. He didn’t look surprised, angry, grossed out, or… well, he just looked a little confused.

“I know,” he replied.

“What do you mean you know?” Peter squawked.

“I mean that I know? I’m pretty sure you’ve come out to me before.”            

“No I haven’t!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes I’m sure!” Peter exclaimed. The two were silent for a beat.

“Was there a second of all?” Harry asked. He was clearly trying not to smile, and Peter kind of loved him for that. Harry was a good friend, he really needed to spend more time with him.

“Yeah. So there’s this guy, and we sort of made out - ”

“You _sort of_ made out?” Harry teased. “Are you not sure? Did you do it right?” Peter took back everything he just said, Harry was an ass.

“Shut-up!” he exclaimed, knowing his face was already beet red.

“Sorry, sorry,” Harry said with a laugh. “You know you’d do the same thing. Okay, so, this guy.”

“Right. So we made out and that was it, right? And I didn’t really have any sort of feelings for him beforehand but now I can’t stop thinking about him and like… kissing him again and stuff?” Peter trailed off awkwardly because he wasn’t sure how exactly to finish up his question.            

“Pete, are you asking me if kissing gives you feelings?” Harry asked. Peter looked away. On the plus side, he was pretty sure that his level of embarrassment had reached its peak.

“Maybe,” he muttered.

“Hmm,” Harry’s face had lost its smirk and he looked contemplative, like he was actually taking the question seriously. “It really depends on the situation I suppose. So this guy, you never really considered him before - was that because you didn’t think he’d be interested or because you didn’t find him attractive?”

“The first one, I guess. He is really attractive. And I mean, we get along really well.” Peter went quiet. That was all true, but it was still setting in that a year from now Danny would leave literally forever.

“You see Dumbo? It wasn’t the kiss - the feelings were inside of you all along!” Harry nudged Peter with his elbow and gave a little grin. “Seriously. I can prove it too, kiss me.”

“What?” Peter said blankly.

“Kiss me!”

“No!” Peter exclaimed, voice going a little screechy.

“What - am I not attractive?” Harry asked. He was grinning but Peter still felt

the need to reply.

“No, you’re fine. Handsome even, but I don’t think of you that way!”

“And you still won’t after you kiss me,” Harry said smugly, poking Peter’s arm. Peter squinted at him. “Promise.”

“But I… fine. Fine.” Peter paused. “Uh, could you start?” Harry rolled his eyes slightly, but nodded and leaned forward. Peter closed his eyes at the last minute.

It was a nice kiss. Almost sweeter than Danny’s had been, and Peter liked it.

But it wasn’t really the same.

“So,” Harry said as he leaned back. He gestured to himself with a grin, “You want to get with this now?”

“… no,” Peter said. “No I don’t. He flopped backwards on the couch. “Holy

crap, I have feelings for him.”

Go find the guy and ask him out,” Harry said cheerily.

“Ask him out?” Peter squeaked, shooting back up. “Woah, no no no. I can’t… I don’t even know what people _do_ on dates! And anyway I don’t think he’s interested. He was just helping me out because I told him I’d never kissed a guy before.”

“Right,” Harry said.

“Seriously - it was a pity kiss. He said it wasn’t, but it was.”

“A pity… make-out session?” Harry clarified.

“Well it started as just a kiss!” Peter insisted. “It just got a little out of hand.”

“Because he’s not interested in you,” Harry repeated. Peter glared and Harry held up his hands in surrender. “You asked me for advice, and I gave it.”

“You’re right, sorry. Let’s just let it go, forget this conversation ever happened,” Peter said. He crossed his arms and slouched down in the couch. Harry shot him a look.

“Fine. Who is this guy anyway?” he asked, picking up the controller again. Peter sighed in relief and picked up his controller too.

“It was Danny,” he said. There was a beat, and then Harry started laughing. Peter just stared, confused at the sudden change in mood. “What?”

“Peter. Peter, come on - you totally have a chance with Danny!” Peter just continued staring as Harry calmed down. “Dude, seriously - ask him out. He’s nice, he’s cool, you know he’s into guys, and he is totally into you.”

“Can we just play video games?” Peter whined. Maybe if he slunk down farther into the couch it would eat him. At very least he would have something to fight. Harry rolled his eyes but, thankfully, didn’t open his mouth again.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh! I realize I forgot to clarify last chapter, but this fic starts off a week after "Journey of the Iron Fist" and continues on from there!

It was a day or two later, and the whole group - including Harry and MJ - were eating in the cafeteria. It was pretty quiet, and then Danny looked up from his food.

“I think I would like to go on a… road trip.” He said. Peter gave a little start.

“What?” Ava asked.

“I’ve been making a list of things I want to do before… graduation next year,” Danny said. As he spoke, he took a folded piece of paper from his pocket. Sam let out a little snort.

“Whatever. That’s like a year away,” he said.

“Let me see,” Ava said. She leaned over and plucked the paper from Danny’s hand. “Road trip, both oceans, Disneyland… world’s largest ball of twine?” She glanced up to give Danny a look but he just shrugged. She sighed and looked back at the list. “You know, you could group together a bunch of these things. We could all go on a roadtrip _to_ Disneyland and we could go to the beach in California. I’m sure that the… ball of twine is between New York and California at some point.”

“Easy Peasy,” Luke agreed. “We could do it this summer.”

“Come on,” Sam said. “Like you-know-who would ever let us out of his sight for that long.”

“I think it could work,” Peter said. He shot Sam a glare, “Maybe we could leave you behind to keep an eye on things.” Sam responded with a deeply offended look.

“What about you, Harry, MJ?” Danny asked.

“That sounds like fun, but I have journalism camp all summer.” MJ said. Everyone knew the pains she had gone through to get accepted to the DBC program.

“I actually have some stuff going on this summer too,” Harry said quietly. Peter turned his attention to him. Harry hadn’t mentioned anything the other night. Before he could ask, however, Harry spoke up again. “But, hey, you guys better sends some awesome post cards!”

“The best,” Danny promised.

“Anyway, I have to go grab something from the library real quick - I’ll see you guys in class,” Harry said. He stood with his tray and walked off. After a beat, Peter darted up too, stuffing the rest of his sandwich back in the brown paper bag and shoving the whole of it into his backpack.

“Yeah, ah, me too,” he said before rushing off after his friend.

“Harry, hey, wait up!” Harry turned as Peter caught up to him.

“Hey Pete, where are you off to?”

“Well, like you I have something I need to grab from the library… which is in the opposite direction, for the record.”

Harry sighed and stopped walking.

“What’s up, Harry?” Peter asked quietly, glancing around to make sure there was nobody else in the hallway.

“My mom had a sister that nobody really knew about,” Harry started. He leaned back against the lockers, massaging his forehead. “A few years ago she started contacting me to try to get to know me better - apparently her and my mom were close before my mom married my dad. Anyway, dad got all upset after doing all of this digging and finding out she was legit and told me to never get into contact with her again. But, now… it seems like I could use another relative, you know?”

“Harry…” Peter said, because what else could you say?

“Anyway, after my dad… ah… well, after that I sent her a letter and we’ve talked a few times and she invited me to spend the summer with her and her family. I said yes. They’re up in Vancouver or something, it seems really pretty from the pictures she’s sent.”

“Oh,” Peter said. “Do you want me to come with?” Harry grinned.

“Nah, I think this is something I need to do on my own. Maybe you’ll be able to visit, though. Heck, depending on who’s navigating your road trip maybe you guys will get lost and end up wandering through Canada!”

“That’s always a possibility with us,” Peter agreed, rolling his eyes.

“Seriously though Pete, call me if you need anything,” Harry said, putting a hand on Peter’s shoulder. Peter gave a small smile.

“You too Harry, I think your summer might turn out to be more emotionally trying than mine,” Peter replied, going for the joke as he grinned at his friend.

“I don’t know, you and Sam in a car driving across the country?” Harry replied, an eyebrow going up.

“Okay, that’s fair.”

 

* * *

 

As the bell rang to end the school day, Peter was already up and moving - using every tool in his arsenal to shift past the rampaging bodies breaking for the door. It didn’t really turn out to matter.

“Hey, where are you going?” Ava asked, leaning against the lockers by the front door. She leaned closer to be discrete and added, “We have training in half an hour.”

“I’ll be there!” Peter exclaimed. “I just have to run out real quick and do something; it’s cool!” Before she could add any more protests, he slid away with another herd of students.

 

Ten minutes later he had thwipped his way up to the Avengers Mansion, and he managed to smoothly let himself in an open window. Thankfully, Tony was the first person he saw - he had his arms crossed and was talking quietly to someone on the screen. The other man glanced up and smirked.

“Tony, you have a visitor,” he said. Tony turned and let out a groan.

“Is there some sort of signal that goes out whenever I don’t want to be disturbed to, you know, _disturb me_?” The man on the screen chuckled. Tony sighed, rubbing a hand over his face and then gesturing to the screen.

“Spidey, Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes. Rhodey, Spider-Man,” he made the introductions. Peter gave a little wave to the screen.

“Sir,” he greeted. Rhodey chuckled.

“’Sir’? I like him Tony, you should keep him around,” he said. Tony turned back to the screen and Peter could tell he was glowering.

“This isn’t the ‘Stark Home for Wayward Heroes’ you know - this is the Avengers Mansion. I’ll talk to you later Rhodey, and what do you want?” he said in one quick sentence. Peter blinked.

“It’s kind of a long story,” he said.

“Make it shorter,” Tony said.

“Okay, well, Iron Fist has to leave literally forever and ever a year from now; and we wanted to do a road trip to the west coast and I was wondering if you had any, like, beach houses in California that we could borrow maybe? You know, for friendship?”

“Yeah Tone - for friendship,” Rhodey piped up from his screen - apparently Tony had forgotten to turn off the screen. In answer, Tony lifted up a remote and clicked a button - the screen popping off in answer.

“Yeah Tony - for friendship,” Came a voice from the doorway. Captain America - or, Steve, Peter supposed considering he wasn’t in uniform… yeah no, Cap - stood there with two glasses of iced tea and a wry grin.

“C’mon kid, you really think I just have a bunch of houses sitting around on coasts to loan out to some teenagers?” Tony said, ignoring Cap.

“… yes?” Peter tried. Tony rolled his eyes, “Come on Tony, please? I’m not asking for your Malibu Dream House, just a nice small beach house that we can relax in!”

“Point of advice Spider-Man, when you ask Tony for something he doesn’t like it when people make fun of his Malibu Dream House,” Cap said. He sat the glasses on the coffee table and walked closer to Tony.

“Please, Tony? I’ll do anything!” Peter said. He dove all in - clasping his hands together and dropping down to look up at Tony pleadingly. Tony glanced down at him, raising an eyebrow before sighing.

“Why is this so important to you, kid?” he asked. Peter could _see_ him wavering.

“Because,” he said as he stood back up. “Iron Fist is going to have to go. He won’t be allowed to leave K’un L’un. I just… we want to make sure that his last year here is memorable.”

“So he’ll have something to miss? Seems to me like you should make his last year suck,” Tony said. Cap gave a short sigh and reached over, cuffing Tony on the back of his head. “Hey! Okay, look. I’ll see what I have out there and let you know.”

“Come back… the day after tomorrow Spider-Man, we’ll work something out,” Cap said, smiling down at him. “You’re doing a good thing.”

“Thanks Cap, Tony… I’ll see you tomorrow!” Before the Avengers could change their minds, Peter rushed back out the window to go back and shoot off up to the TriCarrier.

 

“Wow, way to get in on the wire,” Luke said as Peter skid into the room seconds before the door closed.

“I live on the wire,” Peter responded. “Makes me feel alive.”

“You keep showing up late, Coulson’s going to make you not alive,” Ava said, crossing her arms.

“I’m not late!” Peter protested - even as the robots came charging in. He flipped over one of them and sent it crashing into another one. “Clearly I’m not late - I beat the door!”

“I’m not sure if ten seconds counts Webhead,” Sam said.

“On time is on time!” Peter countered.

“You’re so annoying sometimes,” Ava groaned.

“Sorry, I can’t hear you over how on time I am!” Peter crooned back.

“Yeah, that’s great guys; Real mature, think we could focus?” Luke said, even as he tore the arms off of one of the bots and used them to destroy another. “Where were you anyway, Spidey?”

“I was… doing stuff,” Peter replied. “I’ll tell you guys later.”

“Right,” Ava sliced through a bot.

“What was up with Moneybags at lunch?” Sam asked as he shot a beam at one of the bots. It overheated and shut itself down.

“You call him that again and I’ll personally ground that helmet into dust, Sam,” Peter replied. “And it’s personal.”

“Oh come on, he like totally freaked!” Sam insisted.

“Secrets between friends are the most important of secrets,” Danny intoned before punching through a bot.

“Yeah, Sam wouldn’t get that because he doesn’t _have_ any,” Peter snarked. He knew he was being childish, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself.

“MJ’s my friend,” Sam replied with a smirk. Peter glowered. The enemy bots were all gone and the team turned as the door opened, Coulson walking through it.

“Well done team, I think that was your fastest time yet. Now let’s see you try it again without the chatter.”

Everyone let out a groan.

 

* * *

 

 

By the end of the night, they had run through the course six times and Peter had to leave literally as the last robot was exploding to get back to Aunt May’s on time.

The next day of training wasn’t much better, it was difficult to pull himself out of bed to get to the Mansion before school the following morning.

He swung in the same window as before, but there was no one on the couches so he walked through the door Cap had come from - into the kitchen.

Cap was reading a paper - a paper paper - as he did push-ups, Hawkeye was scarfing down a very colorful cereal, and Tony was drinking a cup of coffee while glaring at a tablet. He moved that glare up to Peter as he walked through the door.

“Ah. You remembered,” he grumbled. He stood, leaving the tablet on the table as he walked into the room with all the couches.

“Don’t mind him,” Cap said. He stood and walked over to pat Peter on the shoulder. “Tony is grumpy in the mornings. We were up late with a fire uptown.”

“No, Tony is grumpy when people invade my mansion,” Tony corrected as he walked back into the room. This time his glare was directed at Clint, who looked offended and gestured at his bowl of cereal, mouth full.

“Ah’m juss ea-ing brokfst,” he said around the food. Tony wrinkled his nose at him and turned back to Spider-Man, handing him a folder.

“Here. It’s a small little beach house right near Burbank. Don’t blow anything up.”

“Thank-you so much!” Peter exclaimed.

“What’s going on?” Clint asked, standing and walking over.

“The Teen Brigade is going on a road trip, this one’s taken advantage of my good nature to borrow a house.”

“Road trip? Fun stuff!” Clint said with a smirk. He paused, tilting his head to the side and frowning. “Wait, are you guys just going to pile onto the SpideyCycle, or…?”

Pushing aside that brief mental image, Peter felt his posture droop.

“Uh, I hadn’t actually thought of that.” He frowned down at the folder in his hands, glancing up in time to see Cap looking at Tony.

“Hey, no,” Tony said, holding up his arms. “Look Steve, even if I wanted to loan the twerp a car, I do not have anything that would fit five super-powered teenagers. I collect sports cars.”

“I have a van you guys could borrow,” Clint piped up. All three turned to stare at him. “What? These are Coulson’s kids, I like the idea of knowing what they’re up to.”

“You know Coulson?” Peter clarified. Tony snorted, “Wait never mind, you’re a SHIELD agent, of course you know Coulson.”

“Agent Coulson is also the Avengers’ SHIELD liason,” Cap said with a smile.

“So yeah, I know Coulson,” Clint said.

“Any chance you could convince him to let us actually road trip?” Peter said. He had a mask, but he was pretty sure all of them could tell he was smiling in a slightly desperate manner.

“Kid, here’s a tip - if you’ve gotten this far, Coulson already knows about it and is more or less okay with it,” Tony said, crossing his arms. He turned to Clint as Spider-Man processed this. “You have a van? This oughta be good.”

Five minutes later, the four of them stood in the frankly massive garage staring at Clint’s van.

It was large, old looking, a touch rusty, and bright purple.

“I think the SpideyCycle would be less conspicuous,” Tony said dryly. Clint shot him a glare and Cap elbowed him in the side; Peter continued to stare.

“This is perfect!” He exclaimed, “Seriously - thank-you Hawkeye. How ‘bought I just take this bad boy and use it to get to school and - !” he reached for the keys but Clint pulled them back.

“No. Okay, Spider-Man here’s the deal. Your team can use my baby - but only White Tiger or Power Man drive. Nova can drive, but _only_ if one of _them_ is in the passenger seat, got it? Under no circumstances should you or Iron Fist be behind the wheel.”

“How do you know if I can drive or not?” Peter demanded, a bit insulted.

“I’ve seen you on your bike,” Clint said dryly. “Let one of them know to pick it up before you start your trip.”

“Shouldn’t you be getting to school, Spider-Man?” Cap asked, glancing at his watch. Peter let out a squeak and booked it out of there.

 

* * *

 

 

“Hey Pete, did you get detention for being late again?” Harry asked. Peter poked at his pudding cup with a spork, too lazy to go through the actual motion of opening it.

“Nope, not this time,” he replied.

“Want to come over after school?” He turned to look at the rest of the group. “All of you actually, I was thinking we could try another movie marathon?”

“That sounds like fun,” Danny said with a smile.

“Can we delay it to dinnertime? Peter promised to go through some Chemistry notes with me,” Luke said. They were getting better at excuses, Peter would be proud if it didn’t turn his stomach a little bit.

“Sure, I’ll order some pizzas or something,” Harry said with a grin. “We’ll make a whole night of it.”

 

“Are you actually going to be _early_ to training?” Ava asked. As always, she was waiting by the door to the ‘detention’ room. Peter waved his arm at her.

“No, yes, I…” he paused, frowning. “I’m going to talk to Coulson about the whole road trip thing.”

“Do you think he’ll let us do it? We won’t get very far without approval, and it seemed important to Danny.”

“A somewhat wise man once told me that if we got this far, Coulson probably already knows about it.”

“Well that’s true. Still, good luck Peter.”

“Thanks,” Peter said. He took a deep breath and dodged a few students on his way to the principal’s office. He knocked, which was probably suspicious enough on its own, but he wouldn’t put it past Coulson to have some sort of electric current in the handle.

“Come in, Parker.” Peter gulped as Coulson called him in. He took a few steps into the office, closing the door behind him before turning to look at Coulson. The interim principal was sitting at his desk, hands calmly folded together as he watched Peter, expressionless.

“So - “ Peter opened his mouth to talk, and Coulson held up a hand.

“You will be allowed to take the last three weeks of June for a long road trip vacation. Do not blow anything up, do not blow your covers, and do not get into any trouble that SHIELD will have to get you out of.”

“I - okay,” Peter said, blinking.

“And Peter?” Coulson added as Peter turned to leave. Peter glanced back. “Have fun.”

Peter walked out into the hallway and stood there for about a minute.

“How did it go?” Luke asked, walking up beside him.

“Good?” Peter replied, a question in his voice. “Coulson is terrifying.”

“Yeah he is,” Luke agreed. “Are you actually going to be on time to training?”

“I HAVE BEEN ON TIME!” Peter exclaimed, windmilling his arms for emphasis. Luke raised an eyebrow.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Peter would classify the movie night thusfar as a success. They had powered through the Star Wars trilogy, as of the super team only Luke had seen them.

Seriously. Nova was supposed to be some sort of intergalactic super hero and he had never seen Star Wars? Please. They were capping off the night with Transformers - allegedly to see how far special effects had come, but in reality because it was a guilty pleasure of MJ’s. Naturally at _this_ movie Sam was transfixed. Luke was grabbing popcorn from the kitchen, and Ava was staring at the screen as if trying to figure out how to short-circuit the television with her mind.

“Hey, Peter, could I talk to you for a second?” Danny said, quietly leaning over the back of the couch. Peter blinked, and then nodded.

“Yeah, sure,” he hopped off the couch, and followed Danny into the hall. Nobody else seemed to notice, but Peter could _feel_ Harry’s smug stare all the way through the door.

“I apologize if I made things uncomfortable between us, but I would like you to please stop avoiding me,” Danny said the second the door was closed behind them. Peter couldn’t stop the confused scrunch his face turned into.

“Wha - Danny, I’m not avoiding you,” he said. Danny frowned, and Peter thought back over the past few days. Okay, yeah, he could see where Danny might get that impression. “No, really - I was just getting things set up. Iron Man’s loaning us one of his beach houses to stay at in California, and Hawkeye’s loaning us his van for the actual road trip part.” He paused, “Ah, only Luke and Ava are supposed to drive.”

“Oh,” Danny said. The lighting in the hallway was ‘artfully dimmed,’ but Peter could definitely see a faint blush on Danny’s face. Which, of course, made Peter blush because his body made no sense at all. “I’m sorry, I - “

“No, no it’s cool. I don’t think things were uncomfortable,” Peter said. “I mean, it’s kind of uncomfortable right now, but I don’t regret the kiss or anything. I thought it was a good kiss.”

“Yeah, me too,” Danny said. “It was a good kiss. I don’t regret it.”

They stood there awkwardly for a beat, each glancing away. Then Peter took a deep breath.

“Screw it,” he muttered. Danny looked up.

“Wha-?” but his question was cut off as Peter crowded him into the wall - pinning an arm on either side of Danny’s shoulders and pressing his lips to his. Danny let out a soft noise of surprise, but kissed back almost instantly. After a minute, Peter pulled back.

“Was that okay?” he clarified, “I just… I didn’t mean to just for-“ this time, his words were the ones cut off as Danny nodded in an offhand manner and pulled Peter over back by his collar.

“Totally okay,” he clarified between kisses. Peter let out a soft hum - embarrassing, he knows, but what can you do - and pulled back a second to watch Danny. His face was flushed, but only lightly, and he was short of breath. Peter’s eyes dropped to Danny’s neck.

He had done some Googling, lest no one judge him but Siri, and apparently necking was just another name for making out. But still, he was intrigued. He lowered his head and started peppering kisses up Danny’s collarbone and trailing up his neck. Danny let out a soft noise, and then tensed as Peter’s mouth reached the point just behind his jawline. Peter pulled back, mouth already opening to apologize, but then the looked.

Danny’s face was flushed a deep red, and he was biting his lip, glancing away slightly. _Oh._ He leaned forward again.

Both boys jumped violently, springing apart as Peter’s phone gave a loud beep. Peter rubbed the back of his neck as he checked the phone. It was MJ, asking if he had gotten lost on his way to the bathroom or what? He glowered at the device slightly before tucking it back in his pocket.

“Hey, so - “ he started, turning back to Danny with a smile.

“Peter, I think we should stop… uh, not do this again,” Danny said. He wasn’t looking at him, and the red in his face hadn’t abated, but he sounded serious. Peter felt his smile fall. He opened his mouth to reply, but closed it again because he had no clue what to say to that. He tried again.

“Oh,” he managed. “Right, sorry.” He rubbed the back of his neck and started to turn to walk back into the lounge, but Danny reached out to grab his arm.

“In a year, I will leave,” he said. “I will not be able to return, and it is unlikely anyone will be able to visit. Were we to keep doing this, it wouldn’t be fair to either of us.” He trailed off, dropping his hands into his pockets.

“No, yeah, that makes sense,” Peter said. “I can understand that.”

“I just want you to know that it’s not because I wouldn’t… want to,” Danny said. They met eyes, and then each glanced away.

“Right. Okay, I’m just going to…” he gestured behind him before booking it back down the hallway. Maybe the last half hour of Transformers could numb his brain enough to not over think this.

The last half hour of Transformers was not enough to numb his brain. If only it had been the third one. By the time the rest of the group had left - Peter volunteering to stay and help clean up - he was still going over the conversation in his mind.

Why the hell had Danny said that. If he had just dropped it, Peter probably could have just let it go. They made out twice, and decided not to pursue any sort of relationship - no big.

But no, “it’s not because I wouldn’t want to,” what the hell was that about.

“So - am I awesome or am I awesome?” Harry called over from where he was sitting on the couch. “You two snuck off to the hallway to ‘talk’ and don’t come back forever? Go movie night!” In response, Peter walked over and flung himself facedown on the couch, Harry barely moving out of the way in time to avoid a foot to the face.

“Shut up,” Peter mumbled into the cushion.

“No go movie night?” Harry replied, confused.

“He took me out in the hall, we made out, and then he said that he thought it would be a bad idea to keep making out.”

“What, why?” Harry sounded very offended on Peter’s behalf. It was nice. Peter rolled over to reply.

“Technically speaking, he’s kind of a foreign exchange student,” Peter said slowly. He was actually kind of proud by how legit that sounded. “In a year, his Visa’s up and he probably won’t be able to come back. Ever.”

“That’s… weird,” Harry said. “Where’s he from, Burma?”

“I am so proud of you right now,” Peter said. Harry rolled his eyes and tossed a pillow at him. “Let’s just say that… regardless of _where_ it is, he really won’t be able to come back, and it’s not like I’d be able to visit either.”

“Huh.” Harry said. He was frowning, “I guess that seems… reasonable.”

“Yeah, but then - but _then_ he says that he just wanted to let me know that it wasn’t because he wouldn’t be interested.” Harry let out a loud groan. “I know right?” Peter couldn’t help but exclaim, waving an arm through the air.

“Now why would he go and do that?”

“I don’t know!”

“What a jerk,” Harry said.

“He was just trying to be nice or something,” Peter grumbled. “Jerk.”

“Well, forget him, you’ll find some other guy,” Harry said, voice chipper.

“Yeah. I’ll just wait another 17 years for some other guy to kiss me, it’ll be great,” Peter said.

“Hmm, we can speed that up you know,” Harry said. Peter sat up, because he recognized that tone. And that face.

“Harry no, Harry that is your bad idea face, no.” he lunged as Harry stood and grabbed his phone, but apparently all of his Spider reflexes were null and void against Harry on a mission. “Who are you texting?”

“MJ. I’m going to have a party this weekend.”

“What?”

“Yep. And if I could gather pretty much the whole school on an hour’s notice just _imagine_ what we can put together in a few days.”

“Harry, I hate to pull this card but the last time you threw a party your apartment got attacked by a sewer goo monster.”

“Which I later used to save your life,” Harry said firmly. “No matter what, I count that as a win - now go home, you’ll be no help planning a party.”

“But -“

“Nope,” Harry replied. “Cliff will drive you home, and you are not going to think of all the terrible things that could happen.”

“I hate you,” Peter said.

“Love you too!” Harry called as his best friend stalked out the door.  



	4. teenage parties raise the roof

“Yeah, PARTY TIME!” Sam cheered, volume only matched by the blare of the fire truck zooming down the road behind them. The team and MJ were walking to Harry’s from the nearest subway station, in varying states of excitement from Peter’s dread to Sam’s elation.

“Why are you in such a lousy mood?” MJ asked, she bumped into Peter with her hips. “Lighten up, it’s a party!”

“You see MJ, Parker is incapable of having fun.” Sam said solemnly. He walked over and draped an arm over each of their shoulders. “It’s a sad life he lives, but it’s important to let him grow, try and develop a -“

“Okay, get off of me,” Peter grumbled. He slid out from Sam’s arm and moved to the other side of Luke. “I can have fun.”

“It’ll be great Peter,” MJ assured from where she stood in front of the OsCorp door. She pressed the button for the suite and a few seconds later the side door buzzed to let them in. As the rest of the group walked ahead, MJ tugged Peter back and leaned forward to whisper. “At least pretend to enjoy yourself, okay? I’m pretty sure he’s doing this for you.”

“I know he’s doing this for me,” Peter replied in a matching whisper. “That’s why I’m in a bad mood.” MJ laughed, and Peter rolled his eyes as she shoved him through the door into the elevator.

When they arrived, the party was underway. Harry must have been keeping an eye on the door - or he and MJ had been texting - because he appeared pretty much as soon as the door closed behind them.

“Hey guys, come on in! Pete, there are some people I want you to meet over there,” and with that, Peter was swooped into the crowded living room - his silent pleas for help laughed off by MJ.

About an hour later, Peter had to admit that this wasn’t so bad. It was nice to just sort of be normal and socialize with his classmates. Some of these guys were pretty cool.

He was actually having fun.

And then Harry strolled out of the kitchen waving an empty bottle of root beer. Time seemed to slow down as Peter finally registered how their earlier conversation translated into Harry throwing a party.

“Who’s up for spin the bottle?” he called. Half the room started cheering. Harry met Peter’s eyes and - after a short pleading look - grinned when Peter nodded slightly.

Which is how Peter found himself sitting between Harry and Sam watching Flash spin the bottle. Peter himself had kissed three girls and two guys - thankfully not Sam or Harry - and was feeling alright. Maybe there was some logic to Harry’s theory of forgetting Danny’s lips by trying out a bunch of other lips.

Not that it stopped him from glancing over to where Danny was sitting with Ava and some of the Science Bowl kids every so often. They didn’t seem to be paying attention to the game at all. Peter frowned, attention turning back to the bottle as it started to slow and point… at him.

Of course.

The circle and the slight crowd around it gave an “oooohh” as it had every time two guys had been paired up to kiss, but it was louder because Flash had only landed on girls so far in the night. Flash was frowning down at the bottle, and a few seconds passed. Peter smirked.

“Scared, Flash?” he asked. A few people laughed. From the other side of the circle, Peter saw MJ roll her eyes but come on - like he was going to let that slide.

“Flash doesn’t get scared,” Flash responded. He crawled over and Peter suddenly found himself being very aggressively kissed by Flash Thompson.

For lack of any other option, Peter kissed back - having to fall back a little and brace himself on his arms to stop from toppling over completely. For a quick second Peter felt Flash’s mouth open and hell no thank-you-very-much, but then he was leaning back and standing.

“Who’s awesome?” a handful of the crowd let out a cheer and the game seemed to be officially over - people standing and going to mill about.

“I think someone had a bit too much punch,” Harry said dryly.

“That was one of the most surreal things I’ve ever experienced,” Peter said.

“That was one of the most surreal things I’ve ever witnessed, so…” Harry responded with a shrug. Peter shoved him, but then helped him up after standing. “Was he a good kisser?” Harry asked.    

“Eh,” Peter replied.

“Sounds about right.” Harry said with a laugh. With a wave he went to go chat with one of his friends from English, and Peter glanced around to find his friend Adam waving him over.

Adam frequented the same local comic shop as Peter, and was always up for a good hero debate.

“Okay Peter, help me prove a point here. Chris says that The Wyvern could take out Rocket Lass and Amazonia.”

“Easily,” Peter said with a nod. Adam let out a groan.

“No way dude, Rocket Lass alone could tear him apart!”

“The Wyvern turns into a dragon, Adam - he could swallow both of them in one gulp!”

“Not true - Amazonia defeated him when he was brainwashed in her annual three years ago!”

“That was when he was only half transformed though, it would take a lot to take down a full-sized dragon. Rocket Lass and Amazonia wouldn’t be enough, they’d need a whole team.”

“Alright, what if The Wyvern were real and went bad - do you think Captain America and Iron Man could take him?” Adam challenged. Peter paused, then frowned.

“They wouldn’t have to - the have the whole Avengers team.”

“Stop avoiding the question,” Adam said with a smirk.

“Don’t make me doubt Cap, that’s not cool.” Adam leaned forward seriously and grabbed Peter’s shoulder, watching him intently.

“Never doubt Cap,” he said, never breaking eye contact. “The Wyvern is not the most powerful hero in the comic universe, Amazonia and Rocket Lass could take him if they had to.”

“I guess so,” Peter said with a sigh. “They’d have to find some way to limit his transformation though, didn’t they - “ He jumped as he realized someone was behind him.

“What’s up dude?” Adam asked. He moved the hand from Peter’s shoulder to fist bump Danny, who returned it without much of a smile.

“I’m schooling the baseball team in comics,” Peter said. “Do you read any?”

“Some,” Danny said. He blinked, and glanced at Adam. “Hey, can I borrow Peter for a second?”

“He’s all yours - I already proved my point didn’t I Chris?” Adam turned to his friend who rolled his eyes and said something in response that Peter didn’t hear as Danny was dragging him away.

“Hey, where’s the fire?” he asked as they made their way into the hallway and then into one of the rooms lining the hall. “There’s not actually a fire, is there? Because I actually think this is going rather well and I’d hate to - ”

“No,” Danny said. He shut the door behind Peter, leaving his arm there and moving the other to effectively trap Peter between himself and the door… position very reminiscent of the other day, actually.

“Danny?” Peter asked, doing his best to ignore how his voice cracked _juuust_ a little bit there. Danny watched him for a moment, before taking a few steps back and shaking his head sharply.

“Sorry,” he murmured.

“No problem,” Peter squeaked back.

“You and Adam, are you seeing each other?” Danny asked, rubbing his hands together. Peter blinked.

“Uh, no,” he said. “I know I’m a pretty shifty guy, but all that stuff about never really talking about being gay before, that was not for dramatic effect.”

“Yeah, right, sorry I…”

“Why?” Peter asked. “Why do you ask? I think we had this discussion about relationships and frankly, I could date Adam if I wanted… I mean, you know, if he wasn’t straight and in a relationship.”

“I know that,” Danny said, rapidly coloring. “I just… when you were… I didn’t…” Flustered. Danny was actually flustered. Peter stared for a moment.

“Wait, you were jealous?” he said. Danny took a deep breath, seemed to center himself, and then met Peter’s eyes and nodded.

“Yes,” he replied. “When I saw you kissing Flash Thompson in particular, I was very jealous.”

“That’s…” good to hear, Peter stopped himself from saying, “that is what it is, Danny. But you’re the one who said that we shouldn’t date or whatever so I can kiss Flash all I want to.” Not that he particularly wanted to, but he could.

“We _shouldn’t_ date,” Danny said. “I have to leave Peter, and I can’t come back - it wouldn’t be fair.”   
“You said that already, Danny - you’re having a conversation with yourself right now!” Peter exclaimed. He let out a breath, continuing in a calmer voice. “Look Danny: if you want to kiss, I’d kiss you; if you want to date, I’d enjoy that. But you can’t tell me that you don’t want anything to do with me… romantically or whatever and then get upset about it, okay? Because _that_ isn’t fair either.”

“You’re right Peter, that isn’t fair. I’m sorry,” Danny sighed.

“Thank-you,” Peter said. They stood there awkwardly for a minute.

“You said I could kiss you, right?” Danny clarified. Rather than reply, Peter took two steps forward, grabbed Danny’s face and pressed his lips to his. Danny took a few steps back, pulling Peter with him as he kissed back. “I’m assuming that is a yes.”

“Well I have to get Flash off my lips somehow, right?”

“Stop talking about kissing Flash,” Danny muttered into the crook Peter’s neck. The two fell back onto the bed.

“Well you make a very convincing argum-” Peter cut off as Danny pressed his lips to Peter’s neck and shorted out his brain all over again. “-ent,” he finished, voice weak. There was no way that lips on a neck should feel that good, and yet… Peter’s mind flashed back to the hallway a few nights ago - the look on Danny’s face when Peter had kissed his neck. It would be rude not to return the favor, right? Peter shifted a little, causing Danny to pull back. He opened his mouth, probably to ask if he was alright(and no he was not alright thank-you his brain was bleeding out of his ears because of a stupid kiss). Then, in a feat of Spidey ability, Peter flipped them over so he was the one pressing Danny into the bedspread. It was probably the heat of the moment, but Peter felt absolutely no embarrassment over essentially straddling him.

Danny’s eyes widened and he let out a short breath. Peter couldn’t help but give a little smirk as he leaned down and pressed a kiss to the line between Danny’s neck and his jaw. Just like before he gave a strangled gasp and this time he let out a little noise and Peter sort of lost track after that, things dissolving into a blur of kisses and soft sounds.

“Mhm, wait,” Danny said after awhile, putting a hand on Peter’s shoulder. Peter, just barely managing to ignore the way that his voice growled a bit on that last syllable, rolled back so he was sitting. Danny shifted his weight to sit up as well. “What time is it? Luke, Sam, Ava, and I were going to leave at around midnight.” Peter let out a little grunt and rescued his phone from where it had been abandoned on the floor.

“It’s almost midnight,” he said, trying to work the dejected tone from his voice and almost managing to succeed.

“Peter, look, this doesn’t - “

“Change anything, I know,” Peter said. Taking a deep breath, he turned to meet Danny’s eyes. “We had the discussion, remember? I just figured that if we were just friends who had made out twice, may as well make it a clean three.”

“I see,” Danny said quietly.

“The human brain is fond of threes,” Peter babbled. “Anyway, don’t worry - I… I’m good now, I can control myself.” He smirked. “You should probably get out there, I’ll follow in a minute.”

“Right,” Danny said. He stood and ran a hand through his hair. For a second, he hesitated like he was going to say something else, but he didn’t - just walked out the door. Peter just stared at the closed door, at least the conversation had calmed him down, and then he let out a groan, hopping around to throw himself facedown on the bed.

“Damnit,” he grumbled into the comforter. “Damnit, damnit, damnit.”

After a little bit, he dragged himself into a stand and - after straightening out his clothes and making sure he looked normal - went back out into the living room.

Which was almost empty.

“Wow dude, I don’t want to say that you suck at parties but…” he drawled, coming up to stand next to Harry. He got an elbow in the side for his trouble.

“Somebody spiked the punch, MJ kicked everyone out,” he said.

“Proudly,” MJ intoned from the couch.

“Well, everyone except these guys who are leaving,” Harry said with a shrug, motioning to the SHIELD crew.

“Great party though, man,” Luke said with a grin. Sam even reached out for a fist bump, which Harry returned with the proper amount of caution.

“I too had a very enjoyable evening,” Danny said with a smile.

“I’m sure you did,” Harry muttered. Out loud he clapped his hands together, “Well thanks for coming anyway, sorry we had to end it early.”

“No problem” Ava said. “We had to leave now anyway. See you guys later.”

“Bye!” MJ called from the couch. The second the door closed behind them, Harry spun to face Peter.

“Up top, buddy!” he exclaimed. Peter stared at the hand and shook his head slowly. “Wait, you didn’t have sex in one of my guest rooms did you?” Harry asked cautiously.

“No, thanks, we just made out. Again,” Peter said. This time he didn’t even glance at the raised hand. “And that’s it. No more. He still has to leave in a year, and that’s that.”

“Dude,” Harry whined. “Come on!”

“No. That’s it, he’s right. There’s no point.”

“What on earth are you two talking about?” MJ demanded, sitting up on the couch to turn and look at them. Both boys jumped.

“Uhh,” Harry said, “nothing.”

“Wha - Harry?” MJ exclaimed.

“Are you going to help clean or what?” Harry asked, spinning around.

“Peter?” MJ said, turning to him instead. After a moment, Peter sighed.

“Uh, I sort of made out with Danny… a few times. But he has to leave forever in a year so we can’t date or anything so we’re ending it there.”

There was a pause.

“Wait. I had no clue you were into guys!” MJ exclaimed. “I am a horrible best friend!”

“I’m his best friend!” Harry called from the other side of the room. Peter waved an arm to shut him up and turned back to MJ.

“Wait, you didn’t - ? Oh, I must have thought I came out to you when I came out to Harry… you know what, never mind. Yeah, I’m gay,” he said with a wince and a shrug. MJ just stared for a moment. “Sorry?” he said hesitantly.

“Hey, don’t apologize,” MJ said with a roll of her eyes. “I don’t care, whatever, just give me a minute to catch up. Okay, so you and Danny are a thing.”

“Were a thing!” Harry offered.

“Were sort of a thing, but not really, and are now not,” Peter said. He let out a long sigh. “Can we have this discussion later? I’m drained.”

“Yeah I bet you are,” Harry muttered with a smirk. Peter glared, turning his glare on MJ when she snorted out a laugh.

“Fine, fine,” she said. “Let’s just sleep.”

“You’ll probably want that same guest room, huh Pete?” Harry said with a grin.

“I’ll just take the other couch, thanks,” Peter grumbled. “Is that all the teasing for the night?”

“I think I’m good, yeah,” Harry said with a nod.

“Excellent,” Peter said.

“We should make a blanket fort!” MJ exclaimed suddenly, popping up suddenly from the couch.

“… why?” Harry asked.

“Because it’ll be fun! And you have a billion blankets and pillows in here. We could make it spectacular, and then sleep in it!”

“Amazing, two seconds ago she was about to pass out and now she’s up and… running through my house and taking all of my blankets,” Harry narrated, watching as MJ darted to and from the room with blankets. He turned to Peter. “You okay?” he asked, quieter. Peter shrugged.

“I’m fine. It’s not like I was in love with the guy, I just wanted to date him. He says he can’t so I just have to deal with it,” he gave a weak grin. “And I can; it just sucks.”

“Okay, good. Let’s go build a blanket fort,” Harry said.   



	5. Chapter 5

The next morning, as Peter stumbled through his morning routine, he had to note that he was still pretty calm about things. A bit bitter, maybe, but he meant what he told Harry - it was what it was. Maybe the whole ‘zen’ thing was rubbing off on him.

He went for the toothbrush he kept at Harry’s and frowned at the blur of his reflection in the fogged-up mirror. Setting the toothbrush back down, he wiped off a path to see himself through.

“GAH!” he exclaimed, reeling back.

“Did you forget your toothbrush again?” Harry called from the living room. “You can just brush when you get home you know.”

“No!” Peter called back. “I just…. It’s nothing.” He reassured himself that it wasn’t that noticeable and went back to brushing his teeth.

“Oh my god, someone’s got some serious hickeys!” Mary Jane exclaimed as he walked to the kitchen. Peter jumped and a hand went to his neck.

“I uh… that’s… okay, hickeys,” Peter said, fighting off his embarrassment. “They’re not that bad, right?”

“What did you guys try to eat each others necks or what?” Harry said with a smirk, walking over with three glasses of orange juice. “His just as bad?”

“Shut up,” Peter grumbled, Quietly he added. “his might be worse.”

“Yeah buddy,” Harry said with a wink.

“I have some make-up that will cover that right up,” Mary Jane said, walking over to grab her own juice.

“Woah, wo-ho, let’s just take a step back. I’m not going to put make-up on my neck!” Peter exclaimed.

“Boys,” MJ muttered with a roll of her eyes. “You saying you want to walk around school like that tomorrow?”

“I…” Peter said. “Will they still be here tomorrow?”

“Oh you poor innocent sweet little angel,” MJ said with a grin, draping her free arm around his shoulders.

“Why do people keep doing that,” Peter grumbled, shrugging her off.

“What MJ is saying is that those are bruises, Pete - they’ll last a few days,” Harry said.

“I’m not putting make-up on my neck,” Peter insisted, setting down the empty glass and crossing his arms. “I’ll look up how to get rid of them on the Internet - isn’t there a way to make them go away faster?”

“I avoid hickeys,” MJ said with a flip of her hair. “I’m a redhead, they last forever.”

“Hickeys are a mark of pride, Peter - I’ve never looked for tricks on how to hide them,” Harry offered with a grin, setting down his glass as well.

“Well I’m glad we’re best friends guys, really. Thanks,” Peter grumbled.

“I’ll just leave some concealer in your pocket big guy,” MJ said with a roll of her eyes. “You’ll thank me later.”

“Right,” Peter grumbled. “We’ll see.”

“How was Harry’s?” Aunt May asked later at dinner.

“Oh, it was fine,” Peter said. He had an easier time resisting the urge to mess with the collar of his shirt when Aunt May was talking about the fires that were all over the news, but it was difficult to resist once the actual party came up. “It ended kind of early, so Peter, MJ, and I made a blanket fort and had some classic sleepover fun.”

“That sounds nice,” Aunt May said calmly. “And the boy that you made out with, when will I meet him?”

“What?” Peter squeaked out. “I don’t know what you… how did you…?”

“Peter. If you wanted to hide, you might have wanted to try some concealer,” Aunt May said with a small smile. “So, will I get to meet him soon?”

“I… no,” Peter muttered, dragging his fork through the spaghetti.

“And why not?” she asked.

“I don’t really…” Peter started. “It’s pretty much just not gonna work out because of graduation and stuff. He’s going to move really far away after.”

“I’ll be here if you want to talk, Peter - but you can’t let the fear of tomorrow stop you from acting today,” Aunt May said. She paused, “So long as that acting today is in a responsible and reasonable manner.”

“Man, put that on a fortune cookie!” Peter said with a grin. “But, it’s not really my choice you know?”

“Well alright,” Aunt May said. “How’s Harry doing? You let him know he has an open invitation here any time.”

“I’m sure he knows, Aunt May. Actually, this summer,” Peter started, going on to explain more or less what was going on in Harry’s world. He tried to ignore the pangs that followed from the fact that his friend’s life was easier to talk to his Aunt about than his own.

As Peter was getting ready for bed, he heard a knock on his door.

“Come in,” he called. Aunt May walked in and held out a metal spoon. Confused, Peter took it. “Is this your way of telling me there’s ice cream downstairs?” he clarified.

“No,” Aunt May said with a laugh. “It’s an old trick - rub the spoon on the bruises on your neck and they’ll go away more quickly.”

“Oh,” Peter said. He looked down at the spoon. “Really?”

“Yep,” she assured him with a smile. “They’ll still be noticeable tomorrow, but shouldn’t last much longer after that.”

“Have I told you lately that you’re the coolest aunt in the world?” Peter asked. Aunt May laughed, but then her expression sobered.

“Peter you know you can tell me anything,” she said.

“I know, I just…” Peter sighed. He set down the spoon and rubbed at the back of his neck. “He’s really great, and sweet, and kind, and he cares about his friends and he’s always calm and grounded - he gives good hugs and is surprisingly into pop music, and he’s… I really like him; but it’s just not going to work. I mean, he doesn’t want to anyway.”

“Did I ever tell you that I was the one to ask out your Uncle Ben?” Aunt May asked suddenly. Peter shook his head, confused. “We had been close, dancing around the idea of dating since early high school. But after graduation, he was joining the army - so he’d be deployed. He didn’t want to have to leave me alone.”

“That’s… that makes sense,” Peter said quietly. Aunt May smiled at him.

“Oh it sounds very selfless but it wasn’t - he also didn’t want to get too attached and miss me while he was gone. But I figured that we had these feelings now, we may as well date now.”

“Was it worth it?” Peter asked. “To have that time together and then have to miss him when he… when he was away?” Aunt May pulled him into a hug.

“Yes,” She said quietly, chin resting on the top of his head. “It was worth every second.” After a moment, she leaned back and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “But you don’t need to worry about that - you just worry about getting enough sleep for tomorrow.”

“Thanks Aunt May,” Peter said quietly.

“Sweet dreams Peter,” she called as she closed the door.

 

 

Peter stared at the makeup compact on the sink. He had found it in his bag when he’d gotten home - apparently MJ really had slipped him some. He glared at it.

It didn’t seem to respond.

“I’m not going to put on makeup,” he told it. He switched his glare to his reflection. “No way.”

The red marks on his neck were somewhat faded after he had followed his aunt’s advice, but they were still very visible and very obvious. They were also kind of sore, which didn’t seem entirely fair.

Harry had said that hickies were a mark of pride, but honestly Peter didn’t really feel like parading around with them that obvious. Just picturing it made

want to hide under his blankets for a week - furthermore imagining someone talking about them, or asking him about them.

What if someone else on the team asked about them? Or if they noticed that Danny also had hickies? It’s not like he was ashamed to make out with Danny or anything, but he didn’t want to talk about it and considering they weren’t going to do anything else it didn’t seem like it should be something that they needed to tell people about (or show people).

Oh God, what if Coulson noticed?

Peter tripped over himself in his rush to grab the makeup.

 

“Told you that you’d thank me later,” MJ said in a sing-song voice as Peter approached his locker.

“Shut-up,” Peter muttered, flushing.

“Jeeze, are you magic or something?” Harry asked, walking over and leaning against the lockers. Peter hit his hand away as Harry started poking at his neck.

“He caved on the make-up,” MJ said with a grin. “Caved like a failed soufflé.”

“You need to work on the similes if you want to be a journalist,” Peter muttered.

“Hey - nice scarf,” Harry called. Peter looked up to see Danny and Luke walking by. Danny was indeed wearing a fashionable black scarf with his standard red v-neck and khakis. Danny smiled.

“Thank-you dude,” he said.

There was more conversation going on, but Peter was preoccupied with the scarf. He was jolted back as Harry elbowed him.

“Come on, we’re going to be late to homeroom and you’re actually here on time for once.”

“I HAVE BEEN ON TIME!” Peter exclaimed. Harry laughed and shook his head.

“I can’t believe he went with a scarf to hide it,” Harry said as he and Peter walked to the lunchroom. “Totally lame.”

“What?” Peter asked. Harry stared at him for a beat.

“Seriously Pete?”

“What?”

“Oh you sweet little naïve angel,” Harry chortled. Peter sighed.

“I know what you’re talking about, Harry, I just don’t see what’s so bad about the scarf - it worked, right? You only know because you know.” He paused, “Why has every single conversation we’ve had lately revolve around my love life anyway?”

“Because it’s entertaining?” Harry suggested. Peter frowned at him.

“It’s really not. What about your love life? Wouldn’t you rather talk about that?”

“No, fine. Okay, let’s just go to lunch.”

“Hey Puny Parker!” a familiar call rang out. Peter groaned.

“Really? It’s been months, I thought I was in the clear,” he grumbled. Harry frowned.

“Back off Flash, we’re just going to lunch,” he said, taking a step in front of Peter. Peter grabbed his arm to pull him back.

“It’s fine Harry. It’s Flash, I can take it as long as he leaves everyone else alone,” he muttered. He stepped around Harry. “So Flash, locker knocker time?” Peter asked.

“I thought we’d try something new,” Flash said. He was using his posturing voice, and sure enough some of the other letterman-jerks were leaning against the wall and gave their boss a jerky nod.

“Well that sounds promising,” Peter said conversationally as Flash grabbed the nape of his neck and pushed him through the door. The bathroom door that was. “Or not.”

“Shut-up Parker,” Flash said. He turned to the goons. “Go out and watch the door.”

“Really Flash, a swirly? You’re going to give me a swirly? We’re not eight anymore dude - this is just sad.”

“I said shut-up,” Flash grumbled. Peter crossed his arms.

“I’m not going to let you stick - “ he was cut off as Flash grabbed him by the collar and started kissing him. He pushed him away, letting a bit of his Spidey strength kick in. “What the hell!”

“What?” Flash demanded, stumbling back a few steps and rubbing at his mouth with the back of his wrist.

“You can’t just - just randomly kiss someone!” Peter exclaimed. He hesitated, his brain helpfully pointing out that he had done that not too long ago. “At least not with someone you’ve never kissed before - and _especially_ not to someone you’ve bullied since infancy!”

“Geesh, fine,” Flash muttered. He wasn’t apologizing, but he did look abashed so Peter went ahead and assumed he got the message.

“Great. Also - what the hell?”

“I’m not gay!” Flash exclaimed.

“I didn’t say you were,” Peter said, feeling his anger waning. “I just said you were violating my personal space in a very not-cool way.”

“I’m sorry, okay!” Flash snapped. He shoved his hands in the pockets of his Letterman jacket and turned away.

“Just… don’t do it again. Ask first before you kiss someone, it’s not that hard.”

“I don’t want to kiss you!”

“I wasn’t volunteering!” Peter snapped back. There was the most awkward pause Peter had been apart of for awhile.

“I’m not gay, okay? Whatever,” Flash said. He turned away and, after a moment, straightened up and strolled out of the room. Peter frowned at the door and looked in the mirror. He sighed.

 

“Hey, you okay?” Harry asked.

“Fine,” Peter said. “Thanks for the towel by the way. It wasn’t even a swirlie, he said he didn’t want to get his hands gross so he just shoved me under a faucet.”

“That’s not what he was telling his buddies,” Harry said with a raise of his eyebrows.

“Of course it isn’t,” Peter sighed. “Whatever - we still have time to eat?”

“MJ said she’d grab us something,” Harry said as he led the way to the table. Peter got some weird looks for his wet hair and the towel around his neck, but for the most part people just shrugged it off.

“Hey Peter - did you take a dip or something?” Ava asked. Peter sighed.

“No.”

“Then wha - “

“It was Flash,” Harry cut in, grabbing a seat next to her. “Shoved his head in a sink.”

“I didn’t think people still did that,” Ava said, eyebrows raised.

“You know Flash - a fan of the classics,” Peter deadpanned.

“You want me to have a talk with that guy?” Luke asked, face serious. Beside him, Danny looked pretty angry too. Sam just looked vaguely bored, but maybe an irritated kind of vaguely bored.

“No, it’s fine. I’m pretty sure he’s not going to do it again,” Peter said, waving a hand at him like he was trying to fan away the anger.

“You’ve said that since you were like six,” MJ said. “That guy is a Neanderthal.” She took a violent bite of her carrot stick.

“Can we drop it? Geeze,” Peter said, sinking down on the bench a bit.

 

“Pete,” Luke said about fifteen minutes later in chemistry. “Your hair is dripping on our worksheet.”

“Ah, sorry,” Peter replied. He grabbed the towel from his neck and rubbed at his hair some more. “What?” he asked, noticing Luke eyeing him strangely.

“Did Flash try to choke you or something?” He reached and gestured at Peter’s neck. Peter felt himself turn bright red and dropped the towel back around his neck.

“No. Those are ah, from someone else. I mean that! That is from something else. Bruises don’t form that quickly anyway.” Luke gave him another look but turned back to the worksheet.

“Whatever. Hey - no training tonight, want to play some videogames on the tricarrier? Sam just got _Vengeance in Space IV_ ,” he asked as he scribbled in the correct answer to #7.

“Maybe a little bit later - I have something to take care of after school,” Peter said.

“Solo heroing?” Luke asked casually.

“Something like that,” Peter agreed.  


	6. Chapter 6

“Hello Eugene,” Peter said as Flash closed the door of his house behind him. Flash screamed as he turned, but stopped once he saw it was Spider-Man.

  
“Spidey! Wassup?” he asked, going for a high-five. Peter sighed, but met it. 

“Last time I talked to you about bullying - bullying a kid to the point where he experimented on himself to become a super villain - you said you’d stop.” 

“How did you - ?” 

“I’m in touch with the janitors at schools around town. So what are you doing, Flash?” 

“I’m sorry, okay! It wasn’t like that.”

“So you didn’t grab a shrimpy little kid and give him a swirly?” Peter clarified, crossing his arms. 

“No,” Flash said, looking at the floor rather than his hero. “I didn’t.” 

“Then what did you do? Because I’d like to believe you’re keeping your promise.” Peter felt like he was getting a little heavy-handed, and stopped talking - just watching as Flash fumbled for words. 

“I-I… I kissed him,” he whispered, glancing around as though there might have been someone else in the room with them. Peter blinked, he hadn’t thought it was going to be that easy. 

“Did he know you were going to?” he clarified. Flash shook his head, “that’s not cool, Flash.” 

“I know, okay?” Flash exclaimed. “I won’t do it again, geeze.” 

“Why him?” Peter asked. Sure, donning his secret identity to answer questions didn’t seem the most right thing to happen - but he was trying to help, so he may as well benefit too.

“I was at this party last weekend and I had to kiss him for spin the bottle,” Flash said. He sat at one of the chairs at the little table in the corner. 

“Why do it again?” 

“Because… because,” Flash looked around again and then sighed, dropping his gaze back to the floor. “’Cause he was the only guy I ever kissed and I wanted to… to make sure it wasn’t a fluke… that, ah, I really did like kissing a guy better than kissing any of the girls I’ve kissed.” 

“You wanted to make sure that kissing him didn’t turn you gay?” Peter clarified, eyebrows furrowing. 

“No, it’s not like that I… I’ve been thinking this for a while now and it just sort of… confirmed it.” Flash was still talking to the floor, and was kind of pale. It finally dawned on Peter what was going on. 

“Flash… it’s okay to be gay,” he said firmly. Flash gave a little start.

“I know that,” he muttered.

“Do you?” Peter clarified. “Because it is okay. It doesn’t make you any less of a person.” 

“I don’t want to be gay,” Flash said. His voice was breaking a little bit and Peter panicked. He had honestly never encountered anything like this, and he had no clue what to do. He wasn’t out and open, or in any gsa or other groups that might talk about how to handle someone who was uncomfortable with who they were. He sent out a silent thanks to Uncle Ben and Aunt May for always being so awesome. 

“Well, that sucks,” Peter admitted. “It’s not all bad. You don’t have to come out or be open about it if you don’t want to, you know.” 

“I don’t?” Flash asked, turning to look at him. 

“No,” Peter said firmly. “It’s nobody’s business but yours. If you want to share, you can but you don’t have to. Especially if you don’t want to or don’t feel comfortable doing so.” 

“Because I graduate next spring, and… and I feel like my parents would disown me,” Flash said quietly. Peter sent out another silent thanks to his amazing Aunt and Uncle. 

“Screw them,” Peter said. “You don’t have to tell them anything.” 

“Thanks Spidey,” Flash said. 

“Just call me the Fabulous Spider-Man I guess. But there are better people to talk to, like hotlines and stuff. You should look into them. And apologize to that kid.”   
“I will,” Flash promised. 

“I’m glad you’re not back to bullying,” Peter said, going for the window. “Be a good guy.” That seemed like a cool enough line to end on, he swung out of there. He could really use some video games. 

* * *

      
“How long is it until summer break?” Peter asked MJ. 

“Less than a week,” she replied, “why?” 

“Because I feel like my life has gotten substantially more gay since I kissed Danny and I don’t know how much more the universe can handle,” he replied quietly. 

“What?” 

“Nothing; I’m just ready for the summer.” 

“I am ready to visit Vancouver,” Harry said, catching up to them. “I’m tired of this heat.” 

“It’s not that bad,” MJ said.

“MJ - it’s gotten so hot that buildings have literally burst into flame around the city,” Harry said, tone taking a turn for the dramatic. 

“They can’t just be spontaneously erupting,” Peter said, rolling his eyes. 

“Police haven’t been able to find a link,” MJ said. “Other than the fact they were all abandoned everything from the previous owners to the electrical systems have been different.” 

“Still, spontaneous fires? Seems unlikely.” 

“So does Captain America still being alive after 70 years, Pete. Stuff happens,” Harry said with a shrug. Peter froze, “What?” Harry asked.

“Nothing, I…” Harry had a point - strange things did happen around New York city. And a lot of the times they involved super powers. “Nothing. Nothing, anyway - did you study for the History final?”   
      
Over lunch, Peter snuck into one of the janitor’s closets. With a sigh, he scrolled through his phone contacts and pressed the number for ‘hothead’. 

“Helloooo, if you have this number you must be very important,” the person said as he answered the phone. It was clear he was going for a sultry tone. “How can I help you, don’t hesitate to ask.” 

“Johnny!” Peter exclaimed. He sighed before continuing, more quietly. “Is that how you answer all of your phone calls?” 

“It is on this phone!” Johnny said, a touch defensively. “Wait, Spidey is that you? What is up!” he exclaimed. 

“Those fires that keep popping up around the city, are those you?” Peter asked. 

“What? No. Thank-you-very-much but I have actually been helping to put out one or two of those this week.” 

“I didn’t mean anything rude by it, this time,” Peter said with a roll of his eyes. “I figured maybe you guys were tracking something and you got sloppy or something.” 

“The Human Torch does not get sloppy,” Johnny said with a huff. “Are you thinking they must be something to do with super powers? I figured it was just because of the heat everyone keeps whining about.” 

“I… just a hunch, but since we do live where we live it seems likely. Can you check with Reed to see if he has any ideas on how to check or track who it could be?” 

“I could…” Johnny drawled. 

“Johnny,” Peter groaned. 

“Say please!” 

“Fine. Could you please check?” 

“And thank-you!” 

“Thanks,” Peter growled. Johnny laughed. 

“Lighten up a little, Spidey!” he said. “I’ll check with him and let you know. Is this your number?” 

“Wha - ah, no. Don’t… I’ll call you,” Peter said, already making the mental note to erase his answering message. The last thing he needed was a bored Johnny Storm following him around in his civilian life. Johnny laughed, sensing the lie. 

“Right. I’ll call you when I hear back.” He said. Peter sighed, opening the door to the closet. 

“Thanks Johnny.”

“Now was that so ha-“ he hung up. 

“Who was that?” Luke asked. Peter blinked, there was no one else in the hallway so he shrugged.

“The Human Torch,” he replied. Luke’s eyebrows shot up. 

“You know the Human Torch?” 

“It’s not that exciting, trust me. He can be pretty clingy,” Peter assured him. Luke smirked. “What’s up?” He had chosen this hallway to make the call because it was always abandoned overlunch. If Luke was there, he was probably seeking him out. 

“I wanted to talk to you about Danny,” Luke said. Peter felt his face color, but he fought it off. 

“What about Danny?” he asked as calmly as possible.

“I know he’s into you, and I know you’re into him. But the thing is, he has to go back to K’un L’un soon. And he won’t be able to come back,” Luke started. Peter held up a hand. 

“Luke, I know that.” 

“You do?” Luke clarified. 

“Yeah. I was… sort of there.” 

“Okay, I’m going to need him to tell me that story again. Look, I just wanted to make sure you knew that; I don’t want you to get hurt when he leaves.” 

“Yeah, no I… look dude, we’re not even dating or whatever.” 

“You’re not?” 

“No! We just… it wasn’t… it was just a thing that’s now… not,” Peter said. “Not a big deal. How did you…?”

“Well you having hickies on the same day Danny had to borrow one of my scarves was a big hint,” Luke pointed out. “You two disappearing together two days before that at a party was anotherbig hint.” He smirked. 

“Alright, alright. Subtlety apparently isn’t my strong suit. It’s not a big deal anyway, really.” Peter paused, “Uh, does everyone else know?” 

“I don’t think so,” Luke said with a shrug. “I wouldn’t have gotten there without Danny borrowing my scarf I don’t think.” 

“At least there’s that,” Peter said with a sigh. “Can we please never speak of this again?” 

“And you’re sure you’re fine?” Luke said. 

“So sure,” Peter stressed. 

“Okay, I’ll let it go. So, how’d you meet the Human Torch?” 

“It’s a long story, but mostly he’s nosy and annoying and gets bored when the FF don’t have to deal with some giant disaster,” Peter replied.   
  



	7. Chapter 7

    “Why did you call the Fantastic Four before coming to me?” Coulson asked, sounding exhausted as he massaged his head. Peter could sympathize, Reed was tough to deal with sometimes.

    “Technically I didn’t, I just called Johnny.”

    “Who is a member of the Fantastic Four,” Ava pointed out.

    “Well yeah, but if you’ve ever talked to him, you’ll know it’s hard to remember that,” Peter said with a shrug.

    “Is that a compliment or an insult?” Ava asked.

    “Still, in the future come to me,” Coulson cut in before Peter could answer.

    “Hey, I was double-checking that it wasn’t him!” Peter said, crossing his arms.     

    “Which SHIELD would have been able to confirm,” Coulson pointed out.

    “Aw, don’t blame him - he just missed me,” Johnny’s voice came from the door. Peter sighed and slunk down in his seat. “Don’t bother hiding, Spidey - I know you’re there.”

    “Hi Torch,” Peter said.

    “Oh come on, you don’t hate me that much. I know you better than that.” Johnny said. He walked over and leaned against the table next to him, turning to the rest of the table. “Yo, I’m the Human Torch.”

    “Hi,” Ava said after a pause. She did not look impressed.

    “Oh, oh, let me guess!” Johnny said. He looked around the table. “you must be Nova, which would make you Power Man, you’re White Tiger, and you’re… fist… something. Fists of Fury? Fire Fist - oh! Iron Fist.”

    “You remembered Power Man, but not Iron Fist?” Peter clarified.

    “What? He looks powerful! He has the muscles! That dude’s fists look totally normal.” He paused, and then a smirk came to his face and he opened his mouth to continue.

    “Don’t,” Peter said, reaching up to cover his mouth. Johnny glanced down at him.

    “Fine. Tell me something beautiful Spidey - tell me something romantic.” He fluttered his eyelashes and Peter rolled his eyes - knowing that Johnny would get the message even through the mask.

    “Last week Luke punched the Punisher in the stomach so hard he threw up,” he said drily.

    “This is why you’re single,” Johnny said with a nod.

    “See, I thought it was my good looks?”

    “I think you’re fine on that front, it’s your personality that needs work.”

    “I’m both touched and highly offended. Seems to be common around you.”

    “I missed you too, man.”             

    “What brings you up here anyway?” Peter asked, “Surely you didn’t just get that bored in the lab - you never turn down bugging Reed when he’s busy.”

    “He was supposed to tell Agent Coulson that there’s signs of a heat signature building that matches the trace signatures left behind at some of the fire scenes,” Sue said, coming through the door. She glared at Johnny. “Now I’m thinking he can stay here while you guys take a look.”

    “He can come,” Peter said. “We’re bros, it’s fine.”

    “Yeah!” Johnny cheered.

    “Not actually your call,” Coulson pointed out. “But if it’s okay with the Invisible Woman, I see no reason why the Human Torch can’t use his fire manipulating abilities to assist in this specific mission.” Johnny and Sue had a silent conversation and then she nodded.

    “Fine. But Spidey, feel free to bench him if he gets out of hand.”

    “He gets worse?” Ava asked. Sam shrugged.  


    “We’re inside,” Ava reported over the lines to Coulson.

    “Do you have a visual?”

    “No. No sighting of any fire yet either, just raised temperature.”

    “How hot is it?” Coulson asked.

    “So hot that taking a picture wouldn’t just give you a lens flare - it’d give you a solar flare!” Peter intoned.

    “Spider-Man,” Coulson said with a sigh.

    “Come on Coulson, you gave me that one,” Peter said. “Right now it’s at 80 degrees Fahrenheit and rising.”

    “Alright. Let’s make this quick people. If the temperature gets above 100, Iron Fist, White Tiger and Spider-Man are ordered to vacate,” Coulson said. “Records register this building as originally having five floors, it looks like the top floor collapsed a few years ago around the time the building was vacated.”

    “Basement?” Peter asked.

    “Yes.”

    “Alright - Tiger, Nova - you take the top two floors. Iron Fist, Torch - take the second and third. Power Man and I will check out the basement.” They all nodded and Sam grabbed Ava for a quick ride to the roof.

    “I think there are stairs over there,” Luke said, walking over to a door and nudging it open.

    “Ah. Great, time to go into the creepy basement,” Peter muttered.

    “Team leaders first,” Luke said with a grin, gesturing widely for Peter to lead the way.

    “Anything so far?” Peter asked as he and Luke reached the basement.

    “Nothing on the top floor but some freaked out pigeons,” Sam reported.

    “Nothing on second floor,” Danny said.

    Luke took the lead, sunglasses glinting as they switched to night vision. After about a minute he stopped, holding up a hand for Peter to stop.  
    “There’s a light up ahead, probably best to turn off the night vision,” he said. Peter nodded and moved to take point while Luke alerted the rest of the team to standby.  
    When he finally reached the turn in the room, he paused. In the center of the room was a kid - couldn’t be older than 12, surely - curled up in the fetal position and glowing red.

    “Uh, excuse me?” he called softly. “Are you okay?”

    “Who’s there?” the figure yelled, sitting up and looking around wildly. The red glow grew and seemed to be pulsing.

    “Hey, it’s just me - just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and his buddy,” Peter said calmly, taking a few slow steps over. The boy seemed to calm at his words.

    “Oh. You’re a super hero,” he said, sniffing and wiping his face with the back of his hand.

    “That’s rights, I am.” Peter said. “What’s your name?”

    “Alex.”

    “Okay Alex, what are you doing here? This isn’t a very safe building you know.”

    “I know,” Alex said. “But there was no one here a-and,” he sniffed again, “my parents kicked me out and I c-couldn’t go to a shelter ‘cause it was full, and then I started accidentally setting stuff on fire so I couldn’t stay with the other kids either.” His eyes widened and the red glow started to pulse again. “A-are you here to arrest me about the fires?”

    “No!” Peter assured him. “No, these are clearly accidents. We just want to make sure you’re okay. Where are your parents?” he asked. Alex shook his head rapidly. “Are you sure they know you’re okay?”

    “They said they didn’t,” Alex let out another little sob. “They said they didn’t care. They said to get out a-and I wasn’t allowed to grab anything.”

    “Do you have any other family we could call for you?” Peter asked softly, kneeling to sit next to the boy. Luke walked over as well, and Alex didn’t seem spooked by him either.

    “No, it was just us,” he said quietly. “I don’t want to hurt anyone,” he said, looking at the floor.

    “Hey buddy, it’s okay. Everyone gets scared sometimes,” Luke said. “I have super strength, and I used to be afraid about hurting people too.”

    “Really?” Alex asked.

    “Really,” Luke replied. “When I first got my powers I didn’t know how strong I was - I couldn’t shake someone’s hand without worrying about crushing it. But I learned how to know my limits, and I had help.”

    “And we’ll help you too,” Peter said.

    “Promise?” Alex asked quietly.

    “Promise.” Peter said, “I have a friend who runs a school for gifted kids just like you.” Alex smiled.

    “Our friends are waiting upstairs, want to meet them?” Luke asked.

    “They’re not gonna arrest me either, right?” Alex asked.

    “No,” Peter said. “But we are going to take you up to a super secret spy base - so it might be a little scary.” Alex nodded hesitantly.

    “Okay.”  


    “Shame his parents are such jerks,” Sam offered. “He seems like a nice kid.” The team was gathered around a conference table as Coulson talked to Alex in the other room with Sue.

    “I can’t believe anyone could just abandon their kid because he was a mutant!” Peter exclaimed, throwing himself into the chair with a frustrated sigh. “I mean who does that?”

    “A lot of people to that,” Ava said quietly.

    “Uh Webs, weren’t you paying attention? He said he started accidentally lighting things on fire after he was kicked out,” Luke said, pushing his sunglasses up to rest on his forehead.

    “Wait, what? So… he was kicked out for some other reason,” Peter said slowly.

    “Oh,” Ava said, eyes widening. “Poor kid.”

    “What assholes,” Johnny intoned. Sam and Danny looked confused until the realization seemed to hit Sam.

    “Oh! Well, it’s not like being gay or being a mutant are the only reasons parents kick out their kids…” he trailed off, scratching the back of his head. “Damn.”

    “Wait,” Danny said. “Parents cast out their kids for being gay? This is a thing that happens?”

    “All the time,” Peter said with a sigh. “Not everyone’s fit for the whole ‘unconditional love’ part of parenthood.”

    “Better homeless than abused,” Sam pointed out. “Conversion camps are still a thing after all.”

    “Yes, because abuse doesn’t happen on the streets,” Ava said with a glare. Sam held up his hands.

    “I’m just saying - for some kids that’s a better option, especially if they can find friends out there,” Sam said. “Besides, we don’t even know if that’s why he was on the street.”

    “Excuse me,” Danny said quietly, leaving the room.

    “I’ll go check on him,” Luke said after a beat, walking to the door.

    “Power Man, could you come in here for a moment?” Coulson’s voice came over the intercom not a second later. Luke looked up at the speaker and frowned.

    “I’ll check on Iron Fist,” Peter offered.  
  
    A few minutes later found Peter outside of the third floor gym. Ava had said that Danny liked to go there because it had a separate meditation room attached, but from the sounds of things, Danny wasn’t meditating - he was training.  
 

  “Hey,” Peter said as he walked in. It must be a more private gym, because it was empty aside from where Danny was demolishing a punching bag.

    “Hello,” Danny replied before hitting a right hook and sending the bag swinging violently.

    “Do you want to talk about it?” Peter asked. Danny paused, breathing heavily.

    “Hold the bag?” he asked, Peter obliged and Danny started in with some short punches as he spoke. “I suppose there are things in this place I was not prepared for. Luke had told me that some people had problems with certain kinds of relationships, but I did not realize the extent.”

    “Is it not that way in K’un L’un?” Peter asked.

    “No.” Danny punctuated the answer with a solid kick to the bag that made Peter adjust his stance. “K’un L’un has many ideas that some here would consider outdated, but not about this.”

    “Huh,” Peter said. “Must be nice.”

    “I have lived in K’un L’un since childhood, I did not know any different,” another punch. “I did not realize… I never thought to question how my parents would have felt.”

    Oh.

    “Danny…” Peter trailed off, not sure what to say. Danny stopped attacking the bag, hunching over slightly as he regained his breath. “Danny I’ve been there. My parents died when I was very young, I can’t even really remember them.” Peter rubbed at the back of his neck and averted his gaze as Danny looked up. “I, uh, I used to wonder what they would think of me all the time, but never more than when I realized I was gay. Eventually I cracked and asked Uncle Ben if my dad or mom would have hated me. You know what he said?”

    Danny didn’t reply, but Peter could still feel him watching, and he looked up to meet Danny’s look.

    “He said that my parents loved me more than anything, and that end the end that’s what mattered - no matter the specifics. They made sure I’d be loved, you know, giving me to my aunt and uncle. So… so I choose to think they’d be cool with it - Uncle Ben and Aunt May were after all, and they’re way older than my parents were.”

    “But what if - “

    “The truth is… well, orphans like us won’t really ever know for sure, but I for one can’t imagine anyone not liking you,” Peter said.  Danny gave a small grin and rolled his eyes.

  
    “Hey, you okay man?” Luke asked as they walked back into the conference room. He was sitting with Alex, who waved at them when they walked in.

    “I’ll talk to you about it later, dude,” Danny said. Luke nodded.

    “Hey buddy, how are you doing?” Peter asked, walking over to Alex. He smiled.

    “Good. Mr. Coulson said that tomorrow I’ll go up to the school for kids like me that you talked about.”

    “That’s great, you excited?”

    “I’m kind of nervous,” Alex admitted. “But excited too.”

    “Alex, let’s get you ready for bed,” Mr. and Mrs. Cage were at the door, which was interesting. Peter looked over at Luke, who shrugged when he saw his look.

    “Okay,” Alex said, looking at the ground. He followed them out, but waved at the team as he left.

    “Did you find his parents?” Peter asked, looking at Coulson as Alex disappeared around the corner.

    “Yes. We managed to find them and… we persuaded them to legally sign over custody. Alex will be accepted at Xavier’s tomorrow with open arms, and able to regain his life.”

    “Good,” Peter said. He elbowed Luke. “He seems to like you, makes sense - you have ‘big brother’ written all over you.” Luke laughed.

    “I don’t know about that, but he was excited that he couldn’t burn me. I think my parents are excited to have a younger kid to baby for all of a night.”

    “Xavier’s will take good care of him, right?” Sam asked Coulson.

    “It’s the best place for him. They’re the experts on helping kids control their abilities, and he’ll be with people that he doesn’t have to fear for,” he replied. Sam nodded.

    “Good, I’m going to go to sleep now.” And with that, Sam stood and floated out of the room. Peter looked at the door, confused.

    “What’s eating him?”

    “I doubt it’s really any of your business Webhead,” Ava said quietly.

    “Right. We all have our secrets and all that. I’m going to go home now, call me if another crisis arrives.”

    “I think Alex wants you there to see him off,” Luke said. “Taking off around 10.”

    “Noted,” Peter said with a nod.

    “Want a ride back, Spidey?” Johnny asked.

    “My suit’s not flameproof,” Peter pointed out.

    “Ben stayed at home so the Fantastic Four-mobile has an empty seat, and Reed’s ready to go.”  
    “Oh… fine,” Peter said with a sigh. “You guys don’t actually call it that, do you?”

    “Better than the Fantasticar,” Johnny said as they made their way down to the lab.


	8. Chapter 8

            “He’ll be okay there, right?” Peter asked, following Logan as he made for the X-Jet. “He’ll be able to make friends? You can help with his being hot to the touch, right? He’s really nervous about that.”

            “Kid.” Logan said simply. Peter took a step back.

            “Do not worry Spider-Man, our school was made for students just like Alex,” Storm said, walking up beside them.

            No false promises, Peter kind of liked that.

            “Hey kid,” he said as Alex walked by. “Have fun, okay?”

            “Thanks Spider-Man,” Alex said quietly. Peter pulled him into a hug.

            The team all watched together as the X-Men’s plane departed from the Helicarrier. Peter sighed.

            “Where’s Sam?” he asked, looking around. He could have sworn that Sam had been loitering around nearby, but the bucket head was nowhere to be seen.

            “In his room I think,” Luke said. “He didn’t feel like coming down.”

            “What?”

            “Relax,” Ava said.

            “But - “

            “Going into a situation with anger means you have already forfeited a desire for understanding,” Danny said. As ever, he was calm and that just made Peter more irritated.

            “I’m not angry,” he snapped, “I just want to know why he didn’t think it was worth seeing the kid off.”

            “Yeah, clearly you’re not angry,” Luke said drily.

            “I’m not,” Peter said. “I’m just going to go home, whatever.”

            Peter was a liar.

            “Ava, I told you I don’t… oh.” Sam blinked as he realized that it was Peter on the other side of his door. He looked confused, “What do you want Webhead?”

            Peter was all prepared to demand where Sam had been, but the words sort of faded as he took in his teammate’s appearance. Sam looked exhausted, like he hadn’t gotten any sleep, and he had a smudge of ink on his cheek, which was kind of weird.  
            “Are you okay?” he said instead. “You seemed out of it yesterday, and you look even worse today.”

            “Wow thanks,” Sam said drily. “I’m fine.”

            “You… don’t seem fine,” Peter said.

            “Are we seriously going to have a heart-to-heart right now?” Sam clarified.

            “Well the one we scheduled earlier _did_ get overshadowed by us saving the galaxy,” Peter pointed out. “Out of everyone on the team, I know you least.” Sam frowned at him for a moment, but then sighed.

            “Fine. The kid, Alex… he reminded me of my little sister. Just… she’d be about his age now, and I worry about her.”

            “You have a sister?” Peter said blankly.

            “Kaelynn,” Sam said, “She and my mom live in Arizona.”

            “Did… did they kick you out, or?”

            “No!” Sam exclaimed, glaring. “Mom would never do that, okay? It just got… dangerous and I had to make a choice.” He shifted to lean against his door frame. He made no motion to invite Peter in, which was fine by him.

            “How long were you in outer space?” Peter asked after a beat.

            “A while.” Sam said. “Look, Nova… it’s, there used to be a whole league of Novas - the Nova Corps. A decade or so ago, the majority of ‘em were wiped out. I inherited the helmet from my Dad a few years ago when he finally ditched out of town. But once I put the thing on, other people were able to find me. Bad people. They could track the helmet.”

            “Wha… like evil aliens?”

            “Exactly like evil aliens. It got rough for awhile, so when Rocket and the others invited me to train with them… well, it meant that the bad guys would be tracking me there… not to my Mom’s house.”

            “So you haven’t seen your family in… years?” Peter clarified, stunned. He couldn’t imagine being away from Aunt May - a galaxy or seven away from Aunt May - for that long.

            “I write, call sometimes. When I joined SHIELD Coulson said they’d be taken care of, so I know they’re safe. I just… miss them is all, I miss them a lot.”

            “Well couldn’t you - “

            “Not having this conversation, Spidey. Not right now,” Sam said shortly. “We had our heart-to-heart, can I get some sleep now?”

            “I feel like that was only half of a heart-to-heart,” Peter pointed out. Sam rolled his eyes and shut the door anyway.

            Being Spider-Man could suck sometimes - JJJ had a vendetta against him, SHIELD had invaded his school, and he got beat up a lot - but at least he’d never had to worry that much about what his enemies could do to Aunt May. At least no one could track his Spidey sense.

            “Did you accomplish what you hoped?” Danny asked. Peter jumped and turned to see Danny leaning casually against the wall a few feet away.

            “Oh. I didn’t…”

            “If you did not believe we know you well enough to know your love of confrontation, you underestimate us.”

            “Right. Sorry… yeah, I guess I did accomplish what I hoped,” Peter said quietly. He frowned, “I don’t feel much better though.”

            “The truth can hurt worse than the lies we tell ourselves,” Danny said with a shrug.

            “Would you like to spar?” Danny asked.

            “Dear God yes,” Peter said

            Exercise was supposed to be good for a troubled mind, right? Just because his form of exercise involved fighting someone didn’t make it unhealthy. He was a super hero, a lot of what he did could be considered unhealthy anyhow. Not the best argument maybe.

            “You know, I liked sparring when it meant fighting but I think I like sparring when it means fighting and kissing even more,” Peter commented as he ducked a roundhouse kick.

            “Mmm, well I’d hate for you to lose form,” Danny said with a grin. “Maybe I should set up a reward tier.” He flipped over Peter and slid to try to catch him off balance but Peter hopped up, ready for it.

            “Well then what would you get out of it?”

            “Maybe I’ll set up a reward tier for myself too,” Danny said. Peter tripped and almost went flying into the wall.

            “Okay, I don’t need to see that,” Sam said with a groan. Both turned to the doorway where he was walking through. “I came here to work out, not watch awkward wordplay junk.” Danny coughed but Peter just crossed his arms.

            “Just goes to show you should be prepared for anything.” At this, Sam rolled his eyes.

            “Whatever.”

 

            Two weeks later found Peter and Harry on the roof of the OsCorp tower where a helicopter was waiting to take Harry to the airfield. MJ had left a few minutes early, rushing to finish a deadline.

            “So.” Harry said.

            “Yeah,” Peter replied. They nodded.

            “You going to be okay this summer?” Harry asked, giving Peter an evaluating look.

            “Harry. Again, I think that’s my line,” Peter replied with a grin. Harry stuck his hands in his pockets and shrugged.

            “You look out for me enough, maybe now that it’s my turn to worry about you. I know you’re going through some stuff and you never talk about when something’s bugging you… so, just remember that I’m always a phone call away.” Harry was a good friend, sometimes it seemed like Peter was the worst person in the world for not telling him everything. This was one of those times.

            “Thanks Harry, and same goes for you – you better call as soon as your settled up in Canadeh, alright buddy?”

            “Of course.” There was a pause, and then Harry pulled him forward, “Alright, bring it in; hug it out.” They hugged, ensuring there was enough back patting to pull it off, and Harry grinned as they separated. “To the best summer ever.”

            “Without me?” Peter clarified with an exaggerated hurt look. Harry rolled his eyes.

            “To the best summer apart,” Harry decided. They shared a nod and Harry took a deep breath before turning and walking to the helicopter. Peter waited until the helicopter was out of sight before following the security guard back down and out of the building.

            He had a road trip to plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank-you so much for the support. Please leave some kind words if you feel so inclined. A sequel is likely, but as with all things I write, it will take awhile. These two dorks have a lot to figure out still and now have a whole summer to do so! 
> 
> As always, if you have any questions my tumblr handle is currently "MrsKarenPage" so shoot me an ask. I can even have one of these super-losers answer if you have any questions for them.


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